Packing ring



Patented Nov. 19, 1940 PATENT OFFICE I 2,221,988 PACKING BIN G Allen W. Morton, Baltimore, MIL, assignor to Koppers Company, Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation "of Delaware Application October 29, 1937, Serial No. 171,782

Claims.

This invention pertains to packing rings of the generic type set forth and claimed in U. S. Letters Patent No. -1,538,107, issued to Hugo A. Giller, under date of May 19, 1925. a

While rings produced in accordance with said patent and employing an insert element of a material softer than the body of the ring, which insert first seats against the cylinder, are quite extensively employed and have been eminently satisvides a structure which while retaining all the advantages of the patented structure, has .been found superior thereto in actual use.

With said patented structure where the relatively soft metal insert projects beyond the peripheryof the ring, it has been found in certain instances that it is impossible to maintain the amount of the projection of the insert to the same extent or degree all the way around the ring. The insert may project a thousandth of an inch greater at one place than another and, hence, will not allow the body of the ring to wear into a seat uniformly.

Again, the'insert material itself does not always wear in uniformly and,.consequently, the body of the ring does not make contact with the cylinder around the circumference at the same time. Such condition sometimes results in carbon formations on the periphery of the ring at certain spots where other sections come into a perfect seating relation' and, as .will be appreciated, it is only by allowing the ring to come into a' perfect seat throughout that satisfactory engine performance can be obtained. It will be seen upon examining the Giller patent that the softer material'of the ring first wears in,

followed by contact-of the ring body with the- It-has beencylinder or rod as the case may be. demonstrated, however, that by the employment 40 of the ring structure as hereinafter set forth, better results may be obtained when provision is made for a quick seating-in of the harder material of the body, followed by contact of the softer insert material along with continued and increasingarea of contact with the ring body proper. It is to be distinctly understood that the wearing or contacting face of the ring body shall be so formed or contoured than an initial quick seating will obtain over what may be termed a narrow and continuous circumferential portion or area of said contacting face.

The invention, however, is not necessarily confined to a ring structure wherein a single continuous circumferential portion or area produces the initial wearing surface; such surface or face factory in service, still the present invention pro- (o1. soc-44) may be subdivided so as to produce a plurality of circumferentially extending contacting faces or portions.

The invention is susceptible of various embodiments and several are illustrated in the annexed 5 drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a piston and a portion of a cylinder with a-ring of the present invention in its preferred form mounted in one of the ring grooves of the piston 10 Fig. 2, an enlarged cross section view of a por-' tion of the piston and cylinder and a ring of the form above adverted to; and

Figs. 3 to 6, both inclusive, are similar views illustrative of various modifications of the inventive concept.

Referring first to Figs. land 2 of the drawing, l0 denotes a piston, and II so much of a cylinder as is necessary to an understanding of the invention. The piston is shown as having formed therein three ring-receiving grooves and the ring of the present invention is, in, these figures,

- shown as located in the uppermost groove. It is to be understood, however, that this particular location is not essential and that the ring might be placed in any of the grooves or in all of the grooves if need be. The other rings, denoted by l2 and I3, are of standard form and need not be described.

The body of the ring of this invention. denoted by 14, is preferably formed of cast iron or a harder material, such as steel; or even Bakelite may be employed. Ordinarily, the ring comprises a split annulus and possesses such tension as to normally hold the same outwardly against the wall of the cylinder. However, the packing ring may be used in conjunction with an expander spring, either as a single piece ring or a multipiece ring, such as segmental rings. It is not deemed necessary to show the segmental form as it is well known in the art.

In the preferred form of the invention, the outer or cylinder contacting face of the ring is beveled, the lower portion thereof, as at l5, presenting the narrow circumferentially extending cylinder contacting section which when the ring first comes into action, maintains the ring in such position that the remainder of the outer circum-- ferential portion is held out of contact with the cylinder surface. In other words, the outer face may be said to be beveled inwardly toward the top face of the ring.

An annular groove l6-is formed in the ring and seated therein is a member I! of bronze,- Babbitt metal, silver solder, or other comparable 5 metal, or a composition material may be used such as an artificial resin, leather, carbon, or vulcanized fiber, some of which materials, in some instances, are relatively plastic or pliable, and others relatively hard.

Normally, this insert or wearing member will be forced into the groove l6 after which the cylinder contacting face of the ring will be turned and finished so as to produce a tapered face extending from the upper to the lower portion of the ring. In use, the lower portion of the cylinder contacting face of the ring will present a relatively narrow surface to the cylinder and will seat-in quickly, and this prior to the insert member I! coming into contact with the cylinder wall.

It has been determined that where the rin is made in accordance with Giller patent above referred to, if it is not truly accurate oruniform, parts of the body of the ring seat-in before other portions. The result is very erratic performance of the engine.

.In some instances, in internal combustion engines, portions of the ring become blackened and full of carbon before the insert material has worn in to a perfect seat and allowed the body of the ring to contact the cylinder. It follows that carbon may first form on portions of the body of the ring before coming into a perfect seat and perhaps hold the body of the ring from making a perfect contact and blowby frequently results and the cylinders are sometimes scored or scuffed in spite of the insert material smoothing over other portions of the cylinder and rendering such portions what may be termed slick?! With the present structure,

however, the rings necessarily seat-in very rap-' idly, since they present initially only a very narrow cylinder contacting surface to form the seat and, as the ring wears in, the insert or softer material I! in this particular instance starts to smooth over the cylinder and render it smooth and slick, thus minimizing further wear. By varying the position of the band or inserts in the tapered face of the ring, and the size of the band or bands, the speed at which the rings are allowed to seat-in can be readily governed and a very satisfactory breaking in of a new engine obtained.

As above indicated, the invention is susceptible of various embodiments. In Fig. 3, the insert member I! is made somewhat narrower or less in height and the groove in which it is seated in the ring body is deeper than that shown in Fig. 2.

In Fig. 4, the insert is denoted by I! and the groove l6 is of a dovetail or undercut form in cross section, so-that there is a positive interlock between the parts. The grooves thus far shown and described are located centrally of the cylinder contacting face of the ring, that is to say, equally from'the top and bottom thereof. This, however, is not absolutely essential.

In Fig. 5, a further modification is shown, wherein an annular groove is formed in the outer or cylinder contacting face of the ring and an insert I! of a material different from that of the body of the ring is forced into said groove. As will be seen, the insert is of substantial thickness and its outer face is grooved or hollowed out to form a channel as at l8 so that it does not contact the cylinder wall until such time as the cylinder contacting portions of the ring above and below the insert are worn in or seated when the insert comes into play.

This construction will not seat-in as quickly as will a ring having the relatively narrow face formed by beveling the cylinder contacting portion of the ring. However, by making the insert thick, two relatively narrow cylinder contacting portions are produced above and below the same which will seat-in much more quickly than would a ring having a continuous surface from top to bottom and ultimately allow the insert material to contact the cylinder wall and function as above described.

In Fig. 6, substantially the same end is obtained as in Fig. 5. In this instance, however, the insert ll is much thinner than that shown in Fig. 5, and its outer face as well as the adjacent portion of the ring face are cut away by forming a groove IS in the cylinder contacting face of the ring and the exposed face of the insert. Thus, two bearing sections are formed upon the outer circumferential face of the ring which being relatively narrow as compared to the thickness of the ring, will wear in more quickly than would otherwise be the case if the ring face were continuous.

There is also shown in Fig. 6, an expander ring 2| which acts to hold the ring outwardly and prevent fluttering thereof. The inner edges of the ring body are curved or broken away as at 22 and the bottom of the ring groove merges into the upper and lower faces thereof through slightly curved sections 23. Such arrangement is also depicted. in Fig. 2, as to the curvature, and is applicable to any of the various designs shown. Similarly, some of the figures show the groove for the insert material formed with sharp corners, though rounded or filleted corners may be employed, or, in fact, the bottom of said groove may be made in various forms without affecting the function of the seating-in of the ring body and the insert.

In actual practice, the inclined or tapered face is preferred. The various forms of the structure as above indicated have been found to function more quickly and with greater reliability insofar as seating-in and blowby are concerned than does the ring of the Giller patent, wherein the metal insert comes into contact with the cylinder prior to any contact between the cylinder surface and the cylinder contacting face of the ring body.

Dynamometer tests and tests on actual machines in daily use where rings of the present invention were employed has verified the fact that blowby is minimized and oil consumption is lowered. Similar tests in Diesel engines, compressors and pumps have likewise shown improved performance.

The terms material different from that in the body of the ring, as well as softer material, as used in the claims are to be broadly considered.

What is claimed is:

l. A packing ring, the body whereof is provided with an annular groove in its sealing face forming narrow sealing surfaces to each side thereof, and an insert of material softer than that of the ring body mounted in said groove, the outer exposed surface of said insert being formed with a channel in its exposed face, said channel extending about the insert with the edges of the channel initially lying in a plane approximately coincidental with the sealing surfaces of the ring.

2. A sealing ring having at least one narrow circumferential wearing-in area adapted to wear to a seat in the initial operation of the ring, said ring having an insert of material softer than the material of the ring proper and exposed on the sealing surface of the ring proper, the exposed surface of the insert being depressed relatively to the wearing-in area to .an extent such that the initial wearing-in on said area will occur before said insert contacts the surface against which the ring seals.

3. A sealing ring having in its sealing surface an insert of material relatively softer than the material of the ring itself, said insert material having a lubricating characteristic which if allowed to become effective during the wearing-in period of the ring would delay or inhibit such wearing-in, the ring proper having at least one narrow circumferential Wearing-in area so di mensioned with reference to the exposed surface of the lubricating insert that the ring will seat-in on the wearing-in area before the insert enters into contact with the surface against which the ring seals, whereby the lubricating action of the insert is delayed until initial seating of the ring has taken place.

4. The combination defined in claim 3,. in

which the ring proper is formed of elastic metal and the insert is formed of a relatively softer' metal.

5. A sealing ring having at least one narrow circumferential wearing-in area adapted to wear to a seat in the initial operation of the ring, said ring having an insert of material softer than the material of the ring proper and exposed on the sealing surface of the ring proper, at least a portion of the exposed surface of the insert being disposed at an angle to the surface against which the ring seals and the insert as a whole being depressed relatively to the wearing-in area, the parts being so arranged that the initial wearingin on said area will occur before any portion of the insert contacts the surface against which the ring seals, andvthereafter the area of contact of the insert with such surface will gradually increase as the result of wear to the full width of the insert.

ALLEN W. MORTON. 

